12 comments

1. Ultimately this comes down to your preferences.

   Doing Nara + Fushimi Inari + any amount of Higashiyama (which includes a lot of popular sites in Kyoto, so I’m not sure what you mean specifically by that) would be very fast paced. I’ve done something like it without regrets, we really enjoyed it, but are you cool with really fast paced? Up to you. I want to say we walked 15 miles the day we did a semi-similar itinerary and it forced us to slow down subsequent days, but we went all the way to the top of Fushimi Inari etc. If you only did Nara and Fushimi Inari it would likely still be fast paced by some people’s standards but definitely doable.

   Personally I’m okay with a single Osaka day trip. I did the castle and a bit of Dotonbori with a half day once and enjoyed myself. Again, it was on the fast paced side.

   Other concern I’m seeing is that Gotokuji is very much the opposite side of downtown Tokyo from Akihabara, about an hour by train. That day is still doable but it isn’t geographically as well clustered as other days, in case you didn’t know that.

2. Really solid itinerary overall! The music angle is where I’d focus your attention though since that’s clearly the priority.

   Shimokitazawa on day 6 is perfect for vinly and jazz, but consider adding Disk Union in Shinjuku and the jazz bars around Koenji to that same day or a separate evening. These are the spots serious music people actually go to in Tokyo.

   For listening lounges specifically Jazz喫茶 Intro in Shinjuku and Bar Music in Shibuya are worth building time around.

   Day 9 is definitely too packed. Nara and Fushimi Inari same day is rough, drop one. Fushimi Inari needs an early morning to itself.

   Osaka as a day trip is fine given your interests since the music scene there is good but not significantly different enough to justify an overnight over Kawaguchiko.

   Hakone is genuinely just onsen and Fuji views, if neither of those excite you, maybe consider skipping it and spending more time in Kawaguchiko or add a night in Shimokitazawa at the end.

   Enjoy your Trip!

3. We’re about to head off on our own trip and my good friend just came back from his fifth, so I can share what we have learned in the process:

   * Your trip largely looks great. Aside from where others have already chimed in, you mostly aren’t doing too much in one day
   * If you like some light bar hopping in Shibuya, you should check out The Bellwood. Top 50 bar in the world and relatively easy to get a spot at compared to other options. Some good food nearby
   * Not sure if it is your vibe, but if you are headed out to Sensoji, Imado is within walking distance and is a super cute shrine absolutely loaded with cats. Looks super cute to our group. Akihabara is also reachable from Ueno if you wanted to spend more time in your other areas on Day 6
   * Day 9 should start with Fushimi Inari, that is a packed day otherwise but it can be done if you get out there early enough
   * There is quite a bit to see in Arashiyama, might be worth seeing if the little town is to your liking!

   For your questions:

   * We are also taking a day trip to Osaka. It really feels like it should be fine for what we want to see there. All preference.
   * We’ve put more hours into Hakone vs. Kawaguchiko than I would like to admit. We went with Kawaguchiko. More to see and much closer views of Fuji if it is visible at all.

   We are also doing quite a bit of record shopping! I hope you find some grails and have a great trip!

4. Echoing what a lot of others are saying here, but here are my suggestions:

   * Remove Akihabara from day 6 and make that a pure west Tokyo day. Kichijoji, Ghibli museum, Edo open air architecture museum, etc. are all more in that neighborhood than Akihabara.
   * Go to Akihabara first on your Shinjuku day, which seemed light to me personally. Then visit the park and arcades in the afternoon and alleys and such at night.
   * For day 5, Teamlabs experiences are best when you get the earliest timeslot, but this could conflict with going to Tsukiji. Just be prepared for bigger crowds if you go later.
   * Your Nara day is insane, and I tend to pack days full. Fushimi Inari super early in the morning + a day trip to Nara is doable, you’ll most likely get back in the evening or late afternoon if you speedrun it, but that doesn’t leave you much time at all for stuff in Kyoto.
   * Re: Osaka… totally depends on the person and what you want to do. But Osaka is a good base for day trips out to other areas like Himeji, Hiroshima, Minoh, etc. I think a day trip is totally fine and if you end up really enjoying it, plan to spend more time there on a future trip!

5. Not much to add that others haven’t already, have a great trip, this sounds like an awesome time!

6. Nara plus fushimi inari is gonna be ALOT of walking. Fushimi inari can be a full on hike if you want to get out of the crowds. I would do those of separate days.

7. Pretty solid, with one exception for me. Day 9 is way too packed.

   Move Nara to day 8 and pick one of those day 8 things to include as an evening activity.

   Then pick one of the other day 8 activities and add it onto day 9 along with Fushimi Inari and Higashiyama. Or not, honestly you can very easily spend a day just in those two locations. There’s a ton of stuff around Higashiyama.

   That means cutting 1-2 things, likely from your original day 8, which is ok because all of those are overrated in my opinion.

   Also, strongly recommend the monkey park in Arashiyama, and we really enjoyed taking the bus up to Otagi Nenbutsuji and walking back down to Arashiyama through the bamboo grove.

8. Super minor point, but I would skip Oishi park. We had a similar time period in Kawaguchiko and loved it. Oishi park felt like a tour bus/picture stop more than anything else, and if you’re cycling round the lake it doesn’t offer anything to your day. Spend the time instead cycling up to Chureito Pagoda for sunset. Also definitely get Hoto noodles for lunch, one of my fave meals of my trip! And outstanding apple pie at Gris Cafe.

9. Day 6 is a lot of train time.. depending on what you want to see in Aikhabara, it may be better spent tacked on to day 4, as it’s really only 1-2 train stops from ueno.

   Ameyoko runs right along the train line there.. so it’s pretty good to start from Ueno station, walk Ameyoko, and catch a train at Okachimachi to Akiba (or the reverse).

   They’re so close to each other I walked back to my hotel at Ueno station from Akiba one night, just enjoying the vibes.

   You might want want post days of the week.. some of these places are busier on weekends.

10. I did Nara park, lovely lunch at Fufu, Todai-ji and Fushimi Inari in one day with kids. This was in March and we traveled from and back to Osaka. It was very fun. I didn’t think it was a particularly long day as we were done by dinner and we took our time. When you go hard for 12 hours at Disney, everything else is easy peasy.

    Fushimi Inari is much quieter as you climb higher. After a short walk through the gates, most people disperse. Not many do the full walk up. Bring drinks as the vending machines get progressively more expensive the higher you go.

11. Which hotels did you choose?

12. Give 1 day to shin amori joy train it is worth it

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